Cybercriminals run riot in Namibia

Namibia is the African country most targeted by cybercriminals, a new report by Check Point has revealed. The report corresponds with an earlier one done by Deloitte, which indicated that Namibia is one of most vulnerable countries in the world to cybercrime.Rampant cases of cybercrime have been reported in Namibia due to the lack of security in place to protect the country.In June this year a draft law was tabled in the National Assembly that provides a framework for the promotion, legal recognition, admission and use of electronic evidence in Namibia.The Electronic Transactions Bill further regulates the liability of service providers for the actions of their clients and provides for consumer protection in electronic commerce and incidental matters that may arise.JSEcoin is the top malware on the continent and affects 19% of organisations. The report also disclosed that 84% of malicious files in Africa were delivered via the web, compared to 63% of malicious files globally.The report highlighted that the most common vulnerability exploited in Africa is information disclosure, impacting 68% of organisations.After Namibia came Zambia, Morocco, South Africa and Nigeria as the top five most targeted countries when it comes to cybercrime.Researchers also discovered a rapid increase in the volume of 'sextortion' scams and business email compromise (BEC), which they noted “fraudulently trick victims into making a payment through blackmail or by convincingly impersonating others, respectively”. The report said there has been a considerable increase in email scams involving blackmailing such 'sextortion' and BEC , which make their victims worried enough to pay up and avoid the publication of alleged sexual material. Sextortion is the practice of extorting money or sexual favours from someone by threatening to reveal evidence of their sexual activity.“This mainly includes providing the victim's personal credentials as evidence, which were usually leaked in previous data breaches or purchased on underground forums. Other tactics, mainly common in BEC attacks, are domain and display-name spoofing as well as sending the emails from valid, high-reputation entities,” says the report. Email scammers have also increased the use of evasion techniques in order to bypass email security solutions.The report recommended that security experts be attuned with the ever-advancing landscape to ensure companies remain protected from cyber-attacks.Check Point is a multinational provider of software and combined hardware, as well as software products for IT security.ELLANIE SMIT

Cybercriminals run riot in Namibia

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

Please login to leave a comment

Cybercriminals run riot in Namibia

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-07-03

Please login to leave a comment

Login